Abdi Samatar

An African Studies Committee Baobab Lecture:
Beneath the Headlines:
Democracy, Ethnicity & the State in Africa

**NEW DATE **
Thursday, March 2, 4pm
Schnitzer Museum of Art

Abdi Samatar, professor of geography and global studies at the University of Minnesota, is Somali by birth. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Ethiopia and has conducted extensive fieldwork in Botswana. He spent two years in South Africa in the immediate aftermath of apartheid.

Samatar's interests are development and nation-building in Africa, and he approaches these complex topics from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

Samatar is the author of several books. His book An African Miracle: State and Class Leadership and Colonial Legacy in Botswana Development was a 2000 finalist for the Herskovits Award, awarded yearly to the most important book on Africa.

Click here for a recent interview with Prof. Samatar.